Sacher Torte and Champagne

Day 35.

Today I ventured to Vienna, Austria to visit my oldest cousin Abby while she was on a business trip. This was the first time I had traveled alone from Rome, and it was a little nerve wracking. I successfully printed out my ticket, got to the airport, checked a bag (it was free!) and sat in the airport, about 2 hours early. I waited, and waited and they still had not boarded my flight. Turns out, there was a strike in the Rome airport and they was no one to get the flights out of the airport. My flight was delayed by 6 hours, and since everything was in Italian I was extremely confused for that entire time. We finally boarded our flight, with relief and had a relatively smooth flight. In good spirits, I helped an Italian couple figure out how to ask in English for a connecting flight and headed to claim my bag. I was immediately looked at like I was crazy, and had an older Italian woman laugh in my face. "Oh ragazza, your bags aren't coming". Well, lesson learned, just because it is free to check a bag, does not mean you should. I finally made it to the hotel to meet my cousin, where she promptly whisked me out to a lovely dinner complete with authentic weinershnitzel and we ended the night with a piece of sacher torte, at the famous Hotel Sacher and champagne. It was a great way to end a perhaps unexpected day, and it was so nice to spend time with a family member.